Error: ""Error: Unexpected Oracle error: ORA-00020: maximum number of processes () exceeded" caus (14832)

Error received that causes Post Process to stop:

"Error: Unexpected Oracle error: ORA-00020: maximum number of processes () exceeded"

The database is runing out of number of processes. Check the number of processes value in the init.ora.

The queries below will help identify how many sessions and processes are in use at that time and which applications these sessions are coming from. Run these queries at the time the error occurs:

select count(*) from v$session;
select count(*) from v$processes;
select sid, username, program from v$session where program like '%sp_opst%' and module like '%Post%';

The number of processes will need to be increased in the init.ora. Once the change is made, restart the database if there are other sessions open which exceeds the PROCESSES parameter.

Shareplex requirements for Oracle PROCESSES and SESSIONS setting:

The minimum requirement for MTP (Multithread Post) is to set SP_OPO_THREADS_MAX + one for the global connection. The default setting for this parameter is 64, which takes effect when MTP post is started. This setting can be reviewed in the environment by "sp_ctrl>list param all post".

If the Shareplex instance in question has a number of named Post queues and some of them are stopped due to error (with ORA-00020 showing up in event log), and others are running, then it may be worth letting the others run till their # of messages/ backlog is near 0 before the stopped named Post processes can be restarted to see if they can keep running without having to increase the PROCESSES parameter at the moment. This may get the Post going for the time being and would avoid restarting of database until it is convenient to do so. If the workaround does not help, then the PROCESSES parameter need to be changed.